Proposal Offered to Saudi Arabia for Release of Activists

Press Release

Special Media Release (10/31/2018) Toronto, ON – RINJ, a Canadian Based Women’s Civil society group has proposed a settlement for the release of imprisoned human rights defenders including some of its own members.

List of Human Rights Defenders RINJ Wants Released by Saudi Arabia:

Abdullah Al Malki, academic and citizen-journalist

Abdulaziz Meshaal

Alaa Brinji, journalist for Al-Sharq, El Bilad and Okaz

*Aisha al-Mana, female human rights defender, director of the Al-Mana General Hospitals and the Mohammad al-Mana College of Health Sciences. She is a feminist who has participated both in demonstrations against the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia and in the anti male-guardianship campaign. The RINJ Foundation wants charges dropped for this woman. She has been released mid year.

Ali Al Omari, founder of the 4Shabab TV channel

Aziza al-Yousef, female human rights defender

Eman al Nafjan, women’s rights activist, founder of the Saudi Woman blog is a school teacher and later a university teaching assistant. She earned a master’s degree in teaching English as a foreign language from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. She then taught pre-med English at a university. She was working towards a PhD in linguistics. She was detained by Saudi authorities in May 2018

Essam Al Zamil, economist and citizen-journalist

Fadhel al Manafes, a citizen-journalist and human rights defender

Hatoon al-Fassi was an associate professor of women’s history at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, where she was employed since 1989 and at the International Affairs Department at Qatar University. Al-Fassi claims from her research into the pre-Islamic Arabian kingdom of Nabataea that women in the kingdom had more independence than women in modern Saudi Arabia. She was arrested in June 2018 for believing this.

Jamil Farsi, businessman and columnist for several Saudi newspapers, including Okaz; much followed on Twitter

Loujain al-Hathloul, female human rights defender

*Madeha al-Ajroush, female human rights defender took part in the first protests by Saudi women against the ban on women driving. The RINJ Foundation wants charges dropped for this woman. She has been released mid year.

In a letter to the House of Saud, The RINJ Foundation‘s Board of Directors said, “The RINJ Foundation will seek a remedy by any legal and extra-legal actions that are available to obtain the release of additional human rights defenders known to the persons in the above list to have been captured and held prisoner.”